Central Banks at Their WIT's End

As monetary authorities vow to do "Whatever It Takes," can they boost jobs without creating greater risks?

Back in the '70s, the Ford administration trotted out WIN buttons in its attempt to get the public to get behind a campaign dubbed Whip Inflation Now, which became a tangible symbol of the federal government's haplessness in dealing with soaring prices and high unemployment of the time.

Now we have WIT, in which the world's major central bankers vow to do "Whatever It Takes" to get their economies out of their ruts. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi first made that declaration back in July, to do...